Implementation Science (IS) for Scaling Up

The need to scale up services to expand access to and meet demand for family planning/reproductive health services is clear. Scaling up can be defined as “the deliberate efforts to increase the impact of successfully tested health innovations so as to benefit more people and to foster policy and program development on a lasting basis.”

Strategic planning for the expansion and institutionalization of successfully tested health-systems innovations is essential but often does not take place. As a result, effective new practices and products remain underutilized.

The Evidence Project is using implementation science to strengthen the scale-up process. This work includes implementation research on improving the efficiency of scaling up innovations, linking implementation research with monitoring and evaluation systems, and identifying appropriate metrics for measuring scale up. It also includes the translation and use of evidence on scale up, including through retrospective case studies and relevant syntheses, to better understand the factors that facilitate scale up and the key systems elements and resources needed for a successful and sustainable scale-up process.

The Evidence Project is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of cooperative agreement no. AID-OAA-A-13-00087. The contents of this web site are the sole responsibility of the Evidence Project and Population Council and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

The Evidence Project seeks to expand access to high quality family planning/reproductive health services worldwide through implementation science, including the strategic generation, translation, and use of new and existing evidence. The project is led by the Population Council.